Day 2 Bounce

[Ethelyn Owen]

At 03:35 PM 12/14/98 -0500, you wrote:
>My most memorable experience of just such a day two of energy ocurred the
>very first time I facilitated. It was a group of finance leaders in a very
>large city hospital and their cynicism had held them back from posting the
>real issues that they needed to post on day one. Also, my client, the
>controller, was very concerned that they were "missing the boat". I
>reassured him and spoke of the frustration that groups sometimes have at
>that point - normalized and validated the feelings, and said that I knew of
>a way to make it more focused for day two. At the day one closing, when
>they expressed their frustration, I offered to let them post new topics for
>day two and to withdraw topics that no longer seemed important. I reminded
>them that the right topics don't appear by magic, that they would need to
>take responsiblity for making them happen then I adjourned the group. The
>next morning they came prepared to redo the agenda, they requested more
>shorter periods of time divisions and they flew through the day. My client,
>by 10:30 am was commenting on how wise I was in the ways of groups (if only
>he knew, I thought!) and they had a very happy culmination.
>
>Luckily, I went on my instinct which turned out to be well founded and it
>all worked out. But the surge was incredible. Overnight they had come to
>their conclusions about what really mattered and the next day they focused
>on that.
>
>Happy ending!
>Esther
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Esther -- if you get into the situation you describe again, I have found it
useful, indeed standard practice, to provide an opportunity during morning
news on the second day to post new items and eliminate the un-necessaries.
Doing it in the evening is certainly possible, but most people will forget
by morning, so you have to do it all over anyhow. Actually I make a point
on the first day that while it is good to post everything that anybody can
think of at that point, there will be another opportunity on Day II. That
way they are ready for it. harrison